Beach 2016: Sunday and Monday

Our beach trip already seems like so long ago.

Last night we had a beautiful rainstorm in Birmingham that reminded me of our second night on Ocean Isle.

Most of the rain was offshore, but it sprinkled for a while on the beach, long enough to darken the sand.

Monday dawned nearly cloudless again, and the kids couldn't wait to spend the day on the beach. Those early days of the week, they can't get enough of it.

We were pretty surprised that Amelia even wanted to venture in on her own.

I mean, she always wanted one of us close by, but we practically had to drag her out of the water to get any rest. She LOVED it.

Big fan of watching her brothers body board.

And the boys were SO HAPPY to be allowed in the water to their hearts' content, after last year's shark-bait restrictions.

They rode and rode and rode the waves.

I was out there several of the days with them, either helping Amelia jump waves or just making sure the boys didn't drown, and I'm amazed they could keep going as long as they did. It's exhausting.

Gideon is younger than Amelia but was a total boss in the ocean and the pool!

And Jonah did great -- he loved riding in the float, but he's got a terrific attitude no matter what he's doing.

What a lovebug!

Amelia loved holding onto our hands and jumping waves, or -- better yet -- having me hold onto her under her arms and lift her up over the waves. THAT'S NOT EXHAUSTING AT ALL.

I learned a lesson with her on Monday: she rubbed her eyes so often that she rubbed all the sunscreen off of her cheeks and got a light sunburn. You can see it here.

The rest of the week I was careful to reapply the sunscreen to her cheeks throughout the day. She was QUICK to let me know I had let her down, though. "Why didjou wet me get a sunbane, Mommy?" #knifethroughmyheart

It's hard to believe how much the kids have all grown up ... we started this trip when the oldest ones were toddlers, and now they're teenagers.

This year high tide created a tall, sandy wall that stayed the entire week we were there. It was so pronounced that we had to dig steps in it every morning to get safely up and down to the ocean during the day. It might not look that tall from this angle:

But it was!

Every day when we came in for lunch, it was an opportunity to rinse off with the hose and take a dip in the pool. We hadn't been successful in getting Amelia to wear her "swimmer" at home, but I finally convinced her to try it at the beach -- and she swam with it on!

I cannot TELL you how nice it was not to spend every moment in the pool trying not to be drowned by a small child.

And after lunch, well, THAT was an opportunity for something else altogether.

I couldn't remember the last time I took a picture of all four of our kids together, so I managed to get a couple that Monday.

It's funny when you're used to relatively pale skin and then you see your kids really tan.

And these two, who love each other so much -- and whom I think favor each other with their natural highlights.

Before supper on Monday night, we looked over to see Amelia on the couch, sacked out with her iPad flat on her face.

Of course when she woke up later and walked over to me, I asked her if she'd had a good nap and she said, "I DIDN'T TAKE A NAP."

I showed her that picture on my phone. She said, "I WAS NOT ASWEEP."

I love it when they wake up from a nap in a great mood, don't you?

And Monday ended with a night swim for all except Jonah, Giddy and Amelia. STILL PLENTY OF KIDS IN THERE.

Have to say, these kids are so lucky to have each other. Cousin Camp is a great thing.

Vidalia Onion Cornbread

I KNOW. What are we going to do about me and all this posting?

Granted, it's all food. But I have to get these out of the way.

Kim actually made this cornbread last year at the beach, but as we've established: I never posted last year's recipes. So the ones that are new and different for you guys (meaning they weren't already posted on my Recipes page), I'm posting now.

This is a 2007 Paula Deen number. It might be the best cornbread I've ever eaten.

Vidalia Onion Cornbread

Ingredients

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 large Vidalia or other sweet onion, chopped
1 (8-ounce) package cornbread/muffin mix
1 egg, beaten
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup sour cream
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed

 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with vegetable oil cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and saute the onion until tender, but not browned, for about 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and add the muffin mix, egg, milk, sour cream, 1/2 cup of the cheese, the salt, and dill weed. Stir to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese. Bake for 30 minutes, until set and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cornbread comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly before cutting into squares.

Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake

Kim made this cake last year at the beach. The recipe is available on Hershey's website, and I encourage you to click over to view their pictures of what it looks like when you make it as a three-layer cake. Kim made is as a sheetcake, which is how we usually make desserts at the beach -- it's just easier to serve and it also probably helps with portion control.

I tend to cut the Butterfinger Cake I make into roughly 2x2-inch squares, and then people can come back for seconds if they want them. (And they often want them -- but I feel like I've done my due diligence in keeping things reasonable with the original portion.) Ha!

Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

 

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with "PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING. Makes 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:

ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.

THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.

BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.

CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.

Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Nothing Bundt Cake

This is another one of Kim's treats from the beach this year, and she found it on Tastes Better from Scratch. I will qualify this one by saying that I didn't actually have any of it, since I was trying my darndest to adhere to my new healthy f*&#*@* lifestyle, EVEN ON VACATION. But plenty of people ate it and loved it.  

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Nothing Bundt Cake

 

Ingredients

1 pkg. devils food cake mix
1 small pkg. instant chocolate pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

 

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 ounce) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease and flour your bundt cake pan.
2. Mix the first six cake ingredients together. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into your greased bunt cake pan. Bake at 350 for 45-50 min. Allow to cool in the pan for 20 min., the remove from pan and place on wire cooling rack.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Cream together the cream cheese and butter. Mix in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the powdered sugar until smooth.

Beach 2016: Saturday

I don't think I actually took pictures every single day we were at the beach this year. Maybe I did, but this is the first year in, oh, 15 or so that I didn't take my "big" camera.

You may remember that my laptop's hard drive has been full for the past year and I've had trouble successfully moving everything to an external hard drive, so I didn't bother taking my DSLR on the trip because I knew I wouldn't be able to transfer the photos to my laptop afterward.

Well. Over the weekend at my semi-annual scrapbooking crop, instead of scrapbooking, I became my own Apple Genius. I moved my entire iPhoto library (97,000+ photos) to an external hard drive, then crossed my fingers, prayed mightily and deleted the original library -- and it worked!

Then I moved 4,800 photos and videos off of my iPhone to my laptop and deleted them off of my phone -- and I could swear my phone actually feels physically lighter.

Now "all I have to do" is edit those photos and load them all to Costco so I can order prints to scrapbook at the January 2017 crop. And the next, say, 15 crops in a row.

All of that to say, the pictures from this year's beach trip are all phone pics, and I didn't take as many as I usually do. Don't judge.

To try to avoid most of the traffic getting onto Ocean Isle this year (there's only one bridge to get on and off the island, and you can sit for hours if you get there at the wrong time), we timed our arrival about four hours before check-in time on Saturday.

That gave us time to grab lunch at an island favorite (Pelican's Perch), run into a surf shop for a few things, and then head across the street to dip our toes in the ocean.

I took these pictures right by the OIB pier and public beach access point, so it's probably one of the busiest spots on the entire island.

Even so, the number of people out and about -- and particularly the number of people in the ocean -- compared to last year, when shark bites had been in the news for weeks, was remarkable.

Even though our swimsuits were in the van, the kids were dying to get in the water, so we just let them have at it. Worst thing that could happen was that the van would get wet and sandy. NOW DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEA. That is a fate worse than death for me on a normal day. But I told myself that this was just the beginning of Beach Week and far to early too start ruining their fun.



After we loaded the very wet, very sandy people back up in the van, we headed north to the house. There was a little snafu with the housekey transfer, so we ended up not being able to get in the house for quite some time after official check-in time. Note to those vacationers thinking about VRBO vs. rental-company options: when you deal directly with a homeowner, you don't have a lot of recourse when things go awry, especially when they have a long waiting list for their property. Just saying.

We were pretty late getting to the Shallotte Wal-Mart that night for the first grocery trip of the week -- I don't think we got there until around 9:30 -- and that put us in the checkout lines at 11:45. Would you be surprised to learn that they only had three lanes open? No?

I will say that they handled the midnight shift-change in Shallotte MUCH better than they did in Garden City -- where we vacationed for years. When we'd get stuck in line at shift-change in Garden City, it would cost us an additional 10 minutes, easily. This was a pleasure compared to that.

Once all six of us finally got through the line (and we all remembered our ice!), I asked a stranger to take our picture -- another annual tradition.

Every year it cracks me up that throughout the Saturday we arrive at the beach, people ask me on Twitter, "When are you going to the store?" And then after I Tweet out the picture, I get replies like, "I've been waiting all night for this -- I can finally go to bed!" Apparently our first grocery trip of the week is an epic adventure for many of you, too.

I will say that there were SEVERAL things on our list that we weren't able to get that night -- much of their produce section was wiped out by the time we got there, and there were some other random things we couldn't find. So -- each of us went back out to a closer grocery store probably every day the rest of the week for those things and replacements for perishables.

My brother-in-law Gerry did the math and figured 30 people x 3 meals a day x 7 days = 630 meals. Soooo, lotsa groceries.

Anyway, that kicked off Beach Week 2016, and it was constant excitement from that point forward. More to come.

Sausage Vegetable Pasta

Another goodie from the beach. This one is Tiff's, but it's from last year AND this year -- I just never posted it last year. (Her dessert from both years is already posted, because it's a perennial family favorite: Blueberry Surprise.)

This is one that it surprises me that the kids all like so much, but they do. THE MIRACLE OF SAUSAGE, INTERNET.

Sausage Vegetable Pasta

Ingredients

1 small zucchini, sliced
1 small yellow squash, sliced
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
8 oz. mild Italian sausage (2 links), sliced
8 oz. rigatoni pasta
1 c. fresh pre-diced onions
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 tsp. vegetable seasoning blend*
1 1/2 c specialty pasta sauce
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

*Tiffany and I looked for this at Wal-Mart and Lowe's Foods at the beach and couldn't find it. If you can't find it at your store, just use any kind of seasoning that tastes good on veggies. Google it.**

**This is exactly the kind of advice you get from professional food bloggers.

Prep

• Bring water to a boil for pasta.
• Slice zucchini and squash; cut tomatoes into 1-inch pieces. Chop basil.
• Cut sausage into small, bite-size pieces. Wash hands.

Steps

1. Cook and drain pasta following package instructions.
2. Combine zucchini, squash, onions, 1 Tbsp oil, and seasoning. Set aside.
3. Preheat large saute pan on medium-high 2-3 minutes. Place remaining 1 Tbsp oil in pan, then add sausage. Cook and stir 4-5 minutes or until no pink remains. Remove sausage from pan.
4. Add vegetable mixture to same pan. Cook and stir 3-4 minutes or until vegetables begin to soften and brown.
5. Reduce heat to low; stir in tomatoes, pasta, sausage, and pasta sauce, then cover; simmer 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with basil and cheese; serve.